The Darkside of The Moon
by AvengingMyInnocence
Summary: Word prompt ficletts and one-shots. WARNINGS AND SUMMARIES INSIDE!
1. Mother

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**DISCLAIMER!!! **

**Do I look like Square Enix??? … No, didn't think so. I own nothing, not even the game anymore **_((sobs uncontrollably)) _**DISCLAIM DISCLAIM DISCLAIM! You get the idea…**

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**WARNING!**

Some stories are not suitable for all audiences. I will try to put up a warning before the fic if the rating is higher than T.

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Please Read and Review! Reviews make the Buns happy!

If you would like to suggest a word prompt, please leave it in your comment! I'll do as many of them as I can! :D

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_(WARNING FOR CURSING AND MENTIONS OF RAPE)_

**1; Mother**

_(Prompt submitted by Paul & Erin)_

I tell everyone that you were a whore… That you beat me, and let men knock you around…

I tell them that you were murdered before my eyes, and that you blamed me with your dying breath.

I tell them that I drink to wash away your memory. That I smoke so I don't remember your smell… That I sleep around because I don't know the value of a female's honest company…

But, that's all a lie and we both know it…

Nobody would respect me if I told them I was born into a rich family, and that in all truth you're just as powerful as Shinra, but in another light… The kind that makes people flock to you for help and comfort not run away in fear…

I don't tell them that when I was little I used to ride in a limo to go to school, or that we had a private chef that prepared all our meals.

I don't say that the reason my apartment is always a mess is because I was used to maids doing it for me while I was at school, or playing around with my friends…

I don't tell them that I was a spoiled rich little brat that would have made Rufus Shinra blush…

I don't tell them that the reason I don't wear a tie is because I never learned to knot it myself… That you always did it for me, then patted my chest and said how much I looked like dad…

I don't tell them how you would come into my room when I was young and hold me after I had a nightmare.

How you'd sing and run your hands over my hair until I fell asleep. Or how you would make tea and let me sit beside you in the morning while you drank it… Just being quiet and not judging me for acting like a little kid when I wasn't any longer.

I don't tell them that I ran away when I was fourteen because I thought you were unfair for not allowing me to go to Junon with my younger girlfriend for the summer…

I don't tell them that I actually got lost and kidnapped by a group of thugs and ended up being raped by every last one of them before they beat me into a coma…

When I woke up I didn't tell the doctors my real name, because if I did you would have come to find me and discovered what a pathetic waste your second eldest son is… Because if you had seen me, I would have to admit I was wrong, that I'm ashamed of myself and what I've become…

And I always have been the stubborn one, haven't I…

I don't tell them about my real past… Instead I take on an accent and adapt the story the flower girl, who let me sleep in her church and made me breakfast the day before those thugs grabbed me, told and make it my own…

I don't tell them that the real reason I was so happy to drop the plate was because then I could finally snuff out all the memories. I could finally destroy the evidence of what those guys had done to me years ago.

I could finally forget…

But it hasn't worked…

I still have nightmares, only now… You're not there to make them go away. There are only my cigarettes and the girls I pick up in bars where I tend to get drunk every night…

I don't tell them that you were the best mom in the world… And that when I saw you today in Costa, lounging on the beach with my brothers, you didn't even recognize me…

I don't tell them that… Mostly because I don't want them to see me cry…

I've got to suck it up… It's my fault, not yours, mom…

I'm not your little boy anymore… I'm not the bright child you knew and loved who could never hurt a fly and helped old ladies across the street… I don't belong in your world any longer.

No…

I'm a murderer now… A kid from the slums… I'm a Turk…

And they call me Reno…

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_This just came to me. I've recently wondered about Reno's past__. That and I wanted to write something that wasn't what you'd thing when you read the prompt._

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	2. Gift

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**DISCLAIMER!!! **

**DISCLAIM DISCLAIM DISCLAIM! You get the idea…**

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_(WARNING! IMPLIED NAUGHTINESS.)_

**2; Gift**

_(Prompt submitted by Charlie under the condition that I make it romantic.)_

Why me?

After all I've done, and done to you… You still pick me to be the first…

It's the first time you've moved and I'll admit when you did it scared the shit out of me.

It's cold, so I've moved into your bed to make sure you don't get a chill. Mako poisoning does that. It wouldn't have been the first time I was negligent and allowed you to get too cold… I cursed myself six ways of Sunday the first time it happened… Feeling you shiver as I clung to you, hoping to share some of my warmth…

You don't know how hard it is to sit by your bedside and watch you suffer, knowing there isn't a damned thing I can do about it…

But tonight, everything has changed…

Tonight you moved…

Your arms twitch and slide slowly up, embracing me so weakly I wonder if the combination of moving and breathing is taxing you to your limit.

I cringe at the fact that I can't take this suffering for you… And you know I would in a heartbeat.

The past few days have been hell… Watching you just lie there like a corpse… Wondering when you're going to wake up, if you're going to wake up… Or if you're going to stop breathing and slip away from me forever…

You developed a fever yesterday, had me scared out of my wits, but it's going down now, you don't feel so hot… You feel almost normal, but I'm not taking any chances… Not with the wind blowing like it is. The last thing I want is for you to be cold…

You hold on to me for a moment without moving, and then you move again. Your head turns against the pillow and your face is barely half an inch from mine… I can see your eyes… Glowing fiercely, but… Aware… Tired… So tired, but you can see me… You're here!

Your hands move again, sliding up until your cool, smooth palm touches my face, gently brushing my dark hair from my eyes…

You've never even so much as touched me before… Not like this… I'd always hoped, but, part of me knew better…

Dreams are for kids…

And yet… Here I am… And there you are…

I know what's happening, I can feel it and it scares me, yet thrills me…

Your lips form my name, in a plea it seems, just before they brush with mine…

Had your eyes not been open and searching, had you not been threading your fingers in my hair I wouldn't have considered this a kiss… But it is… It is because your eyes are open and you're whispering my name again… Moving, breathing… Touching me…

I've wanted this for a while… Since I saw your face contort in rage when HE hit me… You looked like a god… A golden haired sapphire eyed _god!_

I knew it always it seemed that I could, and did, but didn't realize it until now that I love you… With all of my heart!

We belong together… Crazy as that sounds… I feel it… We fit together perfectly… You're light everywhere I'm dark… You're innocent everywhere I'm broken…

You heal me even if when this is over you slip back into your mind… The fact that we have _this,_ this moment is enough…

And if our world doesn't end when the sun rises, I promise we'll work it all out when you feel better, when you're not so tired and when I catch my breath…

I promise I'll protect you until then, as long as when you wake up, you remember _this_…

Your skin and mine…

Because every day is a gift, and I'm giving you my tomorrows…

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_(This one is one of my favorites even if it is kind of cheesy. :P Simply because I left it vague enough that it could be either Zack the first time Cloud was poisoned, or Tifa, the second time… And no, I'm not telling who I think it is, I'll let your minds decide for yourselves! :D)_

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	3. Flower

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**DISCLAIMER!!! **

**DISCLAIM DISCLAIM DISCLAIM! You get the idea…**

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_(WARNING FOR BLOOD AND GORE)_

**3; Flower**

Blood comes up when he breathes… It catches in his throat and tickles… Making him want to cough it out, but he knows when he does that it will be the end… If he coughs, the wound will start to hurt…

He staggers, surprised and angry that this has happened… That just after he'd won, someone shot him in the back…

And not just anyone either…

He turns slowly, staring, a hand raising to the wound noticing how his shirtfront has become a reddish black color… The blood oozing through the black knit fabric…

It drips between his parted lips creating a gory line down the center of his chin where it dribbles off, creating fantastical splatter patterns on the metal and concrete between his suddenly awkward feet. And he feels himself pitching forward, dropping to his knees with the sudden weakness that is drowning him. The jolt of his knees against the roof brings the pain.

Washing over him in an instant, enveloping agony.

He feels himself drifting into a state of shock… Feels the cold that isn't really cold seeping into his fingertips and legs… Making him tremble and his head drops forward, even though his eyes are locked on the two blurry, silver hued figures standing not far from him…

He hears them speaking, but doesn't understand the words… Voices are screaming in his head… The sound almost musical in nature because the voices blend together so well… Just as the sky is blending with the rain… A healing rain, he knows that now… But it won't heal him… It's not enough.

There isn't anything he can say… It happened too suddenly for words to have come to him, words that would be adequate to waste his dying breaths on…

No… He'd rather remain silent… The look of surprise and disbelief on his face says everything.

Yet, why is he surprised?

Why is he dreading this?

It's all he's wanted for years… All he's wanted since he'd laid her body in her watery tomb…

_I'm not ready…_

This revelation comes too late, because the next second there is an explosion… It tears through the space between its fiery core and his body in half a breath… Yet, he sees everything…

Sees how the flames devour the two before him, scattering them like leaves in the wind… Burning up every cell of their being in a flash of black and green…

It eats up the air and sucks him in before it blasts him apart again… Scattering his memories to the very farthest reaches of the universe…

And he is calm… Not thinking, not enjoying the sensation, not breathing…

There is NOTHING…

But, still… Nothing _is_ something…

Then there's a spark…

A golden hue, and he finds himself again…

He's staring at a great white light that encompasses him… Becomes part of him… But his eye is veiled by a single golden petal…

He strains to focus on it and realizes it is not a petal at all, but his own hair…

Faces dissolve out of the brightness around him… Familiar, yet not… He feels like he knows each of them, because he sees himself within them… Knows their hearts…

And it is then that he realizes he's floating…

Not floating in the nothingness as he was before… But, floating in cool liquid…

He panics at first and flails, struggling for fear of drowning and a few of the children surrounding him flinch back giggling as he fights to put his feet under him.

But he's able to stand, able to get his head above water and he stares at them wide eyed for a moment, breath coming hard and he half expects to feel that painful tickle of blood running up his throat and automatically he coughs, his hand going to the wound, clenching his teeth to prepare for the pain…

There's a hole in his shirt… But not in his skin… His fingers stretch the hole, unraveling the knit as he pulls it open searching the left side of his chest, but all he finds is a fading pink spot the size of his fist that is at first numb when he touches it, then tingles like a kiss and for a long while he stares at the place, watching the pink fade away… Breathing deeply and relishing in the feel of full lungs and a heart beating without holes…

He sees the faces around him, teary but smiling and he takes a moment to stare at himself and his surroundings.

The pool of water where the flowers once were… Silver where there was once gold… But at the same time…

He glances up realizing the others are staring at him, waiting, afraid…

"It's OK…" He approaches slowly, holding out his hands and takes hold of the boy… setting him down before him in the water… Seeing how it nearly engulfed the kid…

Water trickles down from his open palms, over brown hair, diseased skin, and down the boy's rounded face…

Blackness recedes, sickness is revoked… And suddenly there is laughter. Children cheering and leaping into the water around him, splashing it in every direction. It hangs in the air like diamonds cast from a careless hand.

And then he sees them… The shadow of their forms and for once his mind is still… Thoughts that once raged are now calm, voices that shrieked in the darkness of his mind are silenced… And a chill runs through him because for the first time in years… He is whole…

_Healed._

She smiles at him, even as she fades away, back to her heavenly garden…

The gold of his hair glowing in the sunlight, the pale, unmarked smoothness of his skin…

_Yes…_ She sighs… _The Flower is resilient…_

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_((Blah :P Yeah, I'm a sap… That was my take on the ending of Advent Children. A much less graceful Cloud I might add… :P Heehee… Cloud is fluffy…))_

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	4. Creepy Crawlies

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**DISCLAIMER!!! **

**DISCLAIM DISCLAIM DISCLAIM! You get the idea…**

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_(WARNING! Rated for __Reno__'s potty mouth.)_

**4; Creepy Crawlies**

_(Prompt submitted by Telly. On the condition that it had to be about __Reno__ and Rude and involve some non-yaoi cuddling.)_

Reno's childish fears had always amused Rude… The man could take on monsters ten times his size and yet spiders, worms and bugs freaked him out.

The first time he'd become aware of this was during a mission some three years before. They'd been walking through a forest skirting disgusting bogs and swamps and a leech had attached itself to an unknowing Reno's left calf. He hadn't noticed the thing until it was already bulbous and gorged on his blood.

They'd stopped to make camp on a dryer portion of ground, elevated their tent platform a good two feet above the soggy earth and were cleaning up after a small meal when Reno had plopped down on a tree stump to remove his wet socks and boots. Grumbling that he was going to get 'crazy swampy foot rot' from traipsing around in the bog all day…

He'd rolled up his pants leg to untie his boots and Rude vividly remembered the strained shriek that had reached his ears across the separating distance.

_"Oh, fuck… What the fuckin' fuck is it!"_

He'd turned, expecting to see some monster rising from the bog… But instead he'd seen Reno's suddenly colorless face and his too wide eyes.

His own eyes had traveled down his partner's form and honed in on the leech… It seemed to ripple as it gorged itself, looking almost as if the slimy invertebrate were humping the redhead's gangly shin.

Reno had started shaking then, his breath coming in high whimpers, fingers tightening in the fabric of his pants. "Shiva-Oh _SHIVA!_ Rude get it_ OFF_ OF ME!" Sweat poured down his ashen face and his emerald eyes stared unblinking at the horror that was literally eating him alive.

Rude had seen the panic and been level headed enough to stay silent as he approached, dropping into a crouch and circling Reno's thin ankle with his hand, "It's just a leech."

"Leech! A _LEECH!"_ He'd gone into a kind of spasm then, jerking out of Rude's grasp and tearing his jacket off, along with his shirt. A shrill litany of curses and half screams escaping him as he'd stripped his clothes from his thin body, flinging them in every direction as if they were covered in the creatures.

He'd thrust his hips forward as he'd yanked off his belt and shoved the zipper down, pushing his pants to his ankles and kicking them off. Stomping them repeatedly to smash any that might be lurking in the fabric.

"FUCK! Are there more? ARE THERE _MORE!"_ He'd spun around slapping himself, shoving his hands through his hair to make sure there weren't any on his scalp, red welts shaped like his hands appeared on his chest, shoulders, back, stomach cheeks and legs.

Rude had watched him, eyebrows raised, too shocked to really try and stop him. Reno, one of the most feared Turks still living, was freaking out over a stupid little leech.

With a smothered laugh, he swore never to let the redhead live it down.

Then Reno had stopped, chest heaving for breath, and pulled his boxers away from his body to make sure no leeches had attached themselves to his genitals. He'd stumbled almost as if he were going to faint and collapsed back onto the stump staring with a nauseated expression at the swelling leech still clinging to his leg.

Then, he'd raised teary eyes to his partner's and his lower lip had trembled; "Get it offa me! I-I ca-can't touch it… I'll puke," He'd closed his eyes tightly and leaned to the side his face turning slightly green…

Rude had let out a sigh and turned his back to his partner, capturing the thin pale appendage under his arm so should Reno jerk he wouldn't loose his hold.

"Rude… Shiva, Rude get it offame, _PLEASE!"_ His hands had tightened into fists on the collar of the bald man's jacket and he'd pressed his brow against the back of the hairless pate. Feeling as if he'd faint at any moment… He was being eaten alive and Rude was just sitting there staring at the monstrosity.

"It'll come off on its own in a few minutes… See how fat it is? It'll fall off in a minute, I promise."

Reno hadn't liked that one bit, but he'd remained silent, his practically naked body shivering, ears ringing from shock. "I don't wanna see it… I wanna smash the fucker… Just promise me, w-when it comes off… Promise me you'll smash it. Sm-mash it _dead."_

Rude had grunted, a sound that was neither an affirmative nor a negative.

He'd felt Reno's arms come around his neck, almost choking him as he'd shivered, and everything that had seemed so amusing a few moments before had melted away.

It wasn't one of those fears you could make fun of someone over either… Rude had a sneaking suspicion that had he tried to make fun of him, he would have ended up with the contents of the redhead's stomach splattered all over his bald head…

Eventually the leech had fallen off. Rude had flipped the thing into the weeds so Reno wouldn't have to see it and inspected the 'Y' shaped wound washing it with disinfectant and padding it with a rather thick piece of gauze before binding it with a sports bandage.

"Put on a shirt and get some sleep…" He'd unwound Reno's arms from his neck and stood, brushing dirt from his now wet pants and glancing to his right to watch the redhead move on unsteady legs to the tent and crawl inside.

Rude finished securing the area, set up perimeter alarms and watched the sunlight shrink off into utter blackness before he climbed into the tent and flopped over his own sleeping bag.

Barely three hours later Reno had started shaking him awake.

"Rude… RUDE!"

"Huh?"

"The tent's leaking, my fucking leg is soaked…"

His stomach had tightened and he'd started fighting with his sleeping bag, knowing exactly what was wrong before Reno even clicked on his flashlight.

But, Reno had the flashlight on and trained on his leg before the bigger man had been able to do more than raise his head and swipe a paw like hand in his direction…

Some three miles away on the edge of the swamp an old hermit who lived alone heard the most hideous shrieking noise and ran all the way into town proclaiming that hideous woman-monster was after him…

In all actuality, it had been a red haired Turk screaming like he was dying when he clicked on the light and noticed his leg, his sleeping bag and even the mat below him, were utterly and completely drenched in blood.

He'd been hurt before, yes… But he'd never bled that much, EVER. And all of it because of a little leech!

Rude clapped a hand over his mouth and hissed in his ear, "Its OK! Leeches have an anticoagulant in their saliva, you'll be fine!" He'd then released his partner, since he'd gone limp in his arms, and leaned him back against his pillow while he'd changed the bandage. Reassuring the younger man, even though those green eyes were rolled up to the whites and his mouth was hanging open, that it had mostly stopped bleeding, thanks to the enhancements in his blood. And he'd then had to cast Barrier around their tent incase some swamp dwelling monster caught a whiff of the blood and came looking for an easy meal.

After that Reno had attached himself to Rude's side, cursing under his breath about how vehemently he hated leeches, spiders, centipedes, worms, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, lice… He'd gone on to list just about every single bug or creepy crawly on the planet, and a few he'd made up himself… Including something called a 'twitsnatcher' that he swore was real because he'd been bitten by one as a child living in the slums and almost died. And he'd fallen asleep clinging to his partner's arm, 'injured' leg thrown over Rude's. It was a horribly uncomfortable position, but somehow, the bald Turk managed to drift off and neither had woken until the next morning.

And then Reno was uncharacteristically quiet. Not until they'd made it out of the swamp and back to the helicopter had he said a single thing. Then he'd stopped Rude with a firm hand on his shoulder and leveled a long thin finger in the taller man's face, saying…

"Don't tell anyone about that fucking leech, understand?" Then he'd shivered as if the mere memory of it made him ill and settled himself into his seat.

And despite his best efforts, a crooked grin caught the corner of Rude's lips; "Wouldn't dream of it…"

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_(I can't help it people, I really liked writing that… Freaked out __Reno__ amuses me. And I allude to this oneshot in a fic I'm writing as 'The Leech Incident'… When I post it I'll let you know in the summary. THANKS TELLY!)_

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